Pilgrimage
by Eveshka
Summary: A rememberance of someone is made every year. But of who? To right a wrong of ten years past, the sacrifice is hers.
1. Pilgrimage - Prelude

Pilgrimage

Pilgrimage - Prelude

For the past nine years, I've made a pilgrimage. This year is no different. Tonight, I take a journey that will last a little longer than a night, and will take me back ten years.

We meet in the ruins of the old castle, saying nothing. We embrace, no words are exchanged. There will be time enough for words later. The reason that we are here is enough for now.

Together we silently walk an almost forgotten trail towards a nearby cave. We stop, a ward is lifted, and we continue within. The long passage opens to an ice-cold chamber, the chamber where we have come to pay our respects.

The three of us stand at the crystal in the head of the room, the resting place for our fallen companion. Not a day has passed within that crystal, though our eyes and souls have seen ten long years pass us by since that day.

Hands are clasped, squeezed, released.

We turn and leave.

Rooms at the inn in the nearby town are waiting, the residents expecting our arrival. Food and drinks are brought, and at length, our self-imposed silence is broken.

We talk of idle things, what has happened in the past year, where our lives are now. None of us have married, though lovers come and go. Our relationship would not be understood.

Finally, I bring it up: the time has come. We rise slowly and head upstairs to the room prepared with candles.

It is time to remember.

Each of us tells a remembrance, a story that we all know and recall. But the point is not that we were there and we know the story… the point is that we remember. We remember the death of Kopii Rezo… but we all remember it differently.

At the end of the night, blow out the candles. Sit in the darkness and remember the words.

Sleep as in the fashion of the old days, the group of us in our own sleeping packs. Tonight we return to our memories.

The morning comes, the old jokes are made. We're getting old. The sadness is gone and we're old friends who haven't seen each other in a year. Pry ourselves out of the sleeping packs, argue about breakfast. Nothing has changed, and yet so much is different.

I record it all, writing in the slender books that will be kept to look at through the year. I am the only one who writes things such. I am the only one who can. I ponder my coffee for a moment, then rise. It's time to go. Time to return to our lives and continue living. The past will keep for another year.

We embrace again, smiles are shared. And quietly we leave.

Only I will pause at the cave. Only I will return the wards and ensure that all is well before returning to my palace.

Only I will look at Lina's face one last time within that crystal, and shed a tear.


	2. Pilgrimage - Reunion: Part One

Pilgrimage – Reunion

Part One

He'd come to visit Amelia, the Queen of Saillune. He couldn't decide precisely why, he hadn't been here in slightly over ten years. Maybe it was the memories. Maybe it was something else. But here he was, and she was glad to see him.

Soon would be dinnertime and he was to be the guest of honor. Amelia had insisted, and who was Zelgadis to refuse her?

But when she met him in the drawing room, he'd never seen her so… embarrassed? Uneasy? Concerned, he rose to his feet.

"Amelia? What is it?" He walked towards her, noticing her hand behind her back, as if she were hiding something. "What's wrong?"

Amelia flushed a deep scarlet, almost afraid to look to Zelgadis. Her voice was a quiet whisper as she stepped out of the doorway and brought her hand around. Clutching her hand was a young girl with black hair and brilliant green eyes. "Zelgadis… I'd like you to meet Lina Wil Gracia Saillune."

Zelgadis kneeled to look to the shy girl who blinked back at him. She may have been eight years old, at most. "Your sister returned…? This is your niece?"

"My _daughter_, Zelgadis."

The words shot through his mind like electricity, and he looked back up to Amelia, noting the blush. He looked back to the girl who was busy hiding herself among Amelia's skirt, and smiled faintly. "She's quite lovely." He knew better than to ask. He wasn't going to ask. Amelia's business was not his business.

Amelia hugged the girl close, smiling softly to the big green eyes. "This is my dear friend Zelgadis, Lina. You remember me telling you about him, don't you?"

The child nodded, looking back to the chimera. A soft and shy voice whispered a hello, lips barely moving.

Zelgadis stood and looked to Amelia. In a firm voice, he spoke the only words that he could. "You have a lovely daughter with a name that will be treasured always. Lina…" Emotions suddenly flooded his voice, leaving him unable to speak for a moment. "Would probably be horribly embarrassed… and honored."

Gone was the Princess who would have leapt exuberantly and hugged him for that comment. Instead, the Queen who was standing before him smiled at the unspoken acceptance and reassurance. 

A servant stopped at the door and called them to dinner, breaking the moment. They turned and moved out of the drawing room, following the servant to the dining room.

After dinner, Amelia left Zelgadis in the drawing room again to put young Lina to bed. She'd said that she'd be back shortly.

He'd walked to the bookshelves, idly scanning the spines for interesting titles when a thin set of books titled by Amelia's hand caught his attention. The Beginning… Year One… Year Two… all through to a more recent cover titled Year Eleven. Interested, he picked out The Beginning and flipped it open, starting to read.


	3. Pilgrimage - The Beginning

Pilgrimage – The Beginning

"That's it! That's where we're going next!" Lina said, cheerfully setting her glass down on the table. 

"I doubt that someone who makes chimeras would have something on how to undo a magical curse, Lina," Zelgadis replied sullenly.

Privately, I agreed with Zelgadis. But I knew better than to go against Lina when her mind was made up. Besides, I didn't really think that Zelgadis needed a cure. He was… well… let's just say that I liked him. A lot.

So we all headed out of the inn after Lina, heading deeper into the frozen north in search of this forgotten city that Lina had heard of. But less than a week after we headed out of Gyria, Lina noticed the spires of an abandoned castle towering over the frozen trees and thought it might have something worth exploring for. It's just like her to get sidetracked. Money and treasure: her two biggest loves.

I guess if we had known why the castle was abandoned we'd have gone in anyway. But at least we could have been prepared.

It was a lot colder in the Kataart Mountains than any of us had anticipated, and we were grateful to have found the castle and gotten out of the wind. As we walked in, Lina cast a Light spell and suddenly shivered. As I looked around, the chill that settled into me was from more than just the cold.

We were standing in the Castle of the Demon King of the North.

"Miss Lina, I don't like this…" I said uneasily. The place felt dirty to me, an ancient evil permeating everything around us. "Let's just leave…"

"No way!" Lina replied turning to look at me with that 'we're not going anywhere' look. "Think of the opportunity here! This castle must be filled with ancient secrets!"

I cringed at the thought of half the secrets within these walls, but I could tell that I wasn't going to get very far in my protests. Sometimes it just wasn't worth getting up.

"I agree with Lina. The Demon King of the North was reputed to have locked away a great many things that would work against him. If he controlled it, it was no longer a threat," Zelgadis said as he walked over to a set of runes over a door.

I sighed and hung my head. There was no hope for it. We were staying in the castle, and I had no choice but to go along and hope for the best.

Gourry, of course, didn't really seem to have a clue, but he put his hand on his sword anyway, surprising us all with his comment. "I have to side with Amelia on this one. This place just doesn't feel right. And without the Sword of Light…"

Lina shook her head. "How many times am I going to have to say it? We're investigating this castle, and that is that."

That was that indeed.

We wandered the darkened halls for hours, looking here and there until Lina finally came up to a set of doors that looked frightfully imposing.

"This must be the library! Come on… there's bound to be a whole lot of information in here that's been lost for hundreds of years!" Lina cried, shoving open the doors.

The room was dark and immense, the vastness of it almost swallowing Lina's Light spell. I cast my own Light and looked around nervously. My blood froze in my veins when I saw what was in the center of the room. "Miss… Miss Lina…?"

Lina turned from her study of something on the wall and looked over in irritation. "What is it, Amelia? We're not leaving…" her voice faded as she saw what I was looking at.

There was a figure standing in the center of the room, frozen, but with an awareness that watched us all. I had no doubts whatsoever that I was looking at the Demon King himself.

Lina whistled under her breath and walked up to stand beside me and look at the frozen Demon King. "Wow. And here all this time I'd thought it was an exaggeration of the story. I mean, when Auntie Aqua told me… I never imagined…"

Zelgadis was silent as he walked up to stand on the other side of me, hand on the hilt of his sword. Gourry joined us, and the four of us stood looking at the one who would have resurrected Shabranigdo a thousand years ago.

**Mortals. Have you brought the chimera for me? It has been long since I was granted a… snack.**

I jumped backwards, looking at the statue in horror. It had not just spoken!

"Like Hell, he's a snack. Look, we all know how powerful you were, and how you defeated the Water Dragon King, so we know that we have no chance against you. But we also know that you're pretty much stuck here, unable to move, and destined to spend the rest of your existence here in this castle." Lina said. I admired her bravery. "We're here to see if there's a cure for our friend. You see… he's only been turned into a chimera. So if you know of any ways to undo that, maybe you'd like to tell us. It beats staring into the dark all day."

**And why should I do that? I sense the touch of Shabranigdo on that one. And you have the touch… the Golden One. How do you, a mere mortal, have the touch of the Golden One?**

Lina smirked and folded her arms. "That is a secret."

I fell over as Lina quoted Xellos. I wasn't the only one, Zelgadis was on the floor beside me, and even the statue of the Demon King had a sweatdrop. As I picked myself up off of the floor, I noticed that there wasn't any dust around the feet of the statue. That was odd. As my eyes traveled up the statue, I started to notice other things. There were signs of wear on the armor that it wore, wear that could only be gotten through movement. Which meant…

I put it together too late. As I cried out, the Demon King suddenly moved, grabbing up Lina by her throat and holding her in the air. **You will serve my purpose in restoring my reign. With your power, I will be free to leave this castle once again.**

Gourry and Zelgadis had their swords at ready, I called up a series of spells, allowing the power to build around me. But Lina wasn't doing anything. In fact, to my horror, Lina was turning blue.

"Let her go!" I cried, firing off an Elmekia Lance. The magic flared out, hitting him in the arm.

He looked at me, turning his head and focusing his black-eyed gaze on me with a coldness that I had never seen in anyone's eyes. Your spells are no more than an irritating bug that flies around my head. He reached out with his free hand, the power that radiated from him lifting me off of my feet and sending me into the wall. It didn't hurt as much as I had expected it to, and I landed on my feet in time to see Lina fall from his hand, to catch herself with levitation. She'd managed to free herself.

Or had she?

She hovered in the air in front of him, and when she turned, I could see that her eyes were blank.

Gourry ran up to her as I headed that way, and I froze in shock as she reached out and a fireball enveloped Gourry. _Oh no! He's controlling her somehow!!_

Zelgadis snarled, the Astral Vine spell flaring brilliantly on his blade without warning. He leapt up, swinging the blade down at the Demon King's arm, but a careless gesture from Lina sent him flying backwards, a flare arrow breaking across his chest.

Gourry was singed, but mostly okay, and I knew that I had to do something to keep Lina from being controlled by the Demon King. Clasping my hands, I drew on the training that I had received in Saillune's Royal Magic Guild. "Oh power of Light and Earth and Wind, break now this evil spell! Flow break!!" I unclasped my hands, casting the spell at Lina.

She froze, hung suspended like a marionette, and then fell like her strings had been cut.

Zelgadis moved the fastest, catching her and we fled the room without delay.

Outside the castle, we stopped in the courtyard and Zelgadis laid Lina on the grass. Gourry knelt beside her, looking at her anxiously. After a glance from Zelgadis, I walked over and cast a healing spell. When I touched her arm, I heard her voice in my mind, as if she had used a telepathy spell… even though I knew she wasn't very telepathic.

# Amelia… I can't… stop him. He's in my mind…

I blinked, looking at her as she lay on the grass with her eyes closed. "Miss… Lina…?"

You have to stop me… stop him… he'll use me to free himself. Every spell I cast… I don't know how…don't understand. It has something to do… with the Nightmare… magics…

I grabbed her hand, trying to will her awake. "Miss Lina! How can I stop him? How can I keep him from controlling you?!"

The answer came to me, two words that froze me to my soul.

"No! I can't do that, Miss Lina!"

I dropped her hand, backing away in horror. No… there was no way I could do that… no way that I could… no. "There has to be another way!"

Her eyes opened, and once again there was nothing of Lina within them. Gourry and Zelgadis both sprang backwards, Zelgadis landing beside me. "What was all that about?"

"Miss Lina said…" I dodged a fireball, "that the only way to stop him was…" a flare arrow shot between us, causing us to leap apart for a moment. When we regrouped, I finished my sentence. "The only way to stop him from controlling her is to… kill her."

"What?" Zelgadis froze, staring at me. A fireball detonated on his back, and he went staggering into me. I helped him keep his balance, watching Gourry get blasted with an icicle lance.

"I can't do it, Zelgadis! I just can't do it!" I cried, feeling as though I was on the verge of falling into a vast abyss from which I could not escape.

"Maybe we don't have to. But we have to knock her out again!" Zelgadis said as he headed back towards Lina. I was afraid of what he might do, but her flare bit kept him at a reasonable distance.

I cast the flow break again, but this time she only laughed in a ragged voice that was not hers. "Foolish child to think that would work again. Your magic is no match…" Her eyes rolled upwards and closed as she collapsed.

Gourry stood behind her with a grim look on his face. The hilt of his sword was aimed downward, as if he'd just hit her on the back of the head with it. In fact, he had.

As Zelgadis landed beside me, we watched Gourry carefully pick her up and look over at us. "Let's go."

I'm sitting in the cave that Zelgadis had found. I can't write the rest of the day out… I simply can't do it. There's too much emotion, too many feelings to work through. A summary will have to suffice.

We thought that by leaving the castle and his area of influence… but we were wrong. The possessed Lina almost killed Gourry, and for a moment after she'd run her dagger into him, she was herself, uncontrolled.

And then she turned her dagger on herself before the Demon King could take her over again.

As she fell, Gourry and Zelgadis caught her.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

And I couldn't save her.


	4. Pilgrimage - Reunion: Part Two

Pilgrimage – Reunion

Once more, please forgive the formatting, they're starting to screen out some of the parameters that Word inserts into the html and I'm too lazy to change the coding!! –'Veshka

Pilgrimage – Reunion

Part Two

Zelgadis looked away from the book, tears threatening, burning in his eyes. He'd had no idea that Amelia was writing these. What was worse was that he hadn't known a great many things that had transpired. He hadn't been privy to the conversation that Lina had with Amelia, hadn't known that intimacy of mental contact. He hadn't been able to sense the raging mental battle within Lina.

But Amelia had been able to. That single mental touch had opened a channel between the two girls. They hadn't ever discussed the events of that night in their meetings, instead focusing on the good memories, the antics and the fun.

Her step in the doorway caused him to look up guiltily, and without comment she walked over and took the book from him. He'd only read a few pages, but he felt as if he'd broken her confidence.

"Amelia… I…" he started, emotions thick in his throat.

"If I hadn't wanted them read, I would not have left them here," Amelia said quietly, looking at the cover of the book and the handwriting that was ten years younger.

He looked at the book himself, eyes still burning with emotion. "I… I didn't know that you…"

"You couldn't have known, Zelgadis. I didn't know that Lina could do that. I don't think that she meant to link to me… at least, not like that…" she replied softly.

He looked to her, seeing her pain etched across her face, and for the first time in many years, he reached out to someone instead of focusing in on himself. He put his hand on her shoulder and pulled her around to him, reminding himself to embrace her gently, and felt her stiffen in his arms. A moment of uncertainty passed, then she slipped her free arm around him and started to cry.

Perhaps, if the situation had been different, he would have wondered at himself and his willingness to touch and be touched. But right now, it seemed the only thing that he could offer to her.

They stood there for a long time, her sobs finally drawing the attention of a guard who burst into the room, only to stand confused at the sight of Zelgadis holding Amelia to him as she cried. Aquamarine eyes flickered to the guard, an unspoken challenge flashing within them.

But the guard knew Zelgadis, knew the long friendship between the chimera and Queen. He nodded gravely to Zelgadis and turned, closing the door to the drawing room behind him.

Zelgadis carefully drew Amelia towards a couch, and when they were both seated, she looked at him through teary eyes, trying to compose herself. "I'm sorry… I shouldn't…"

He shook his head. "No, Amelia. You don't have to apologize for anything. I… wish that I had known before…" He was managing to control his own emotions, but barely. He knew she needed someone to talk to, and he couldn't talk to her if he was too busy raging at the injustice of it all. _Injustice. She really did wear off on me more than I thought…_

Amelia sighed and opened the book to where Zelgadis had been. Taking a breath, she started to read aloud.


	5. Pilgrimage - The Beginning 2

Pilgrimage – The Beginning

Once more, please forgive the formatting, they're starting to screen out some of the parameters that Word inserts into the html and I'm too lazy to change the coding!! –'Veshka

Pilgrimage – The Beginning

Part Two

It's been several months since Lina… died. We laid her to rest in the frozen north, forever captured within a variation of the Dynast Breath spell. I enchanted an amulet to continually hold a Grey Buster spell in place, and the frozen crystal grave was complete. In retrospect, I can only surmise that Zelgadis was too numb from shock to realize what I was doing. You see, I'd cast a Resurrection spell on Lina just before I'd locked her in the crystal. In effect, I'd saved her life… only to lock her away alive within a prison of ice.

I couldn't bear to feel her die.

Even now, I'm vaguely aware of her, that link diminished over time and distance. But I can still feel a vagueness of her presence when I am tired, just before I fall asleep.

I remember the horror that washed over her, snapping her back into herself when the Demon King forced her to stab Gourry.

Gourry leapt for Lina, intent on knocking her out again. "Amelia! We have to do some-!"

Those blank eyes were turned to him, white-gloved hands holding the dagger that was firmly embedded under his breastplate armor.

The color drained from his face and he staggered back, the dagger still in her hands, his blood staining her gloves. "Lina…" Gourry said, staggering forward, obviously in pain, but still unwilling to give up on her.

I felt the angry rush of despair crash through her, felt her draw upon the power of Chaos within her and displace the Demon King. I knew it was only temporary, and I started to run towards her. If only I could get to her before the Demon King took over!

Like a bad dream, everything moved in slow motion. Zelgadis was at Gourry's side, casting a recovery spell to heal the dagger-wound, but Lina… Lina looked at her hands and the dagger. _Gourry's blood… on my gloves…_ She turned the dagger, as if looking at it. But I sensed it, through the strange link that had formed; I knew what she was going to do.

I screamed and Zelgadis turned to see as Lina brought the dagger to her chest. A fleeting thought touched my mind, and suddenly time moved too fast for me to catch her. The dagger found its home, and she started to fall.

Zelgadis and Gourry both moved like lightning, catching her before she hit the ground. But it was too late; she'd known precisely where to place the blade. Even if I could save her… the Demon King would take over. I ran up to them, tears streaming down my cheeks.

She smiled so slightly, whispering, "I'm sorry…" before slipping into that bleak darkness that precedes death.

But I couldn't let her go. I cast the resurrection spell as I pulled out the dagger, and pretended that it was too late. I lied to Zelgadis and Gourry, drawing on my inner anger to cast the Dynast Breath and encase her in crystal ice.

I alone knew that she was still alive.

Lost in that twilight, suspended between life and death, but ultimately still alive.

In the months that passed, we continued to travel. I know that Zelgadis blamed himself, as much as I tried to tell him that it wasn't anything that he had done. 

"Damn it, Amelia! Don't you see? The only reason we headed in that direction to begin with was because Lina had heard of a lost library that supposedly had texts on chimeras."

I sighed, looking at Zelgadis. Anger burned in his eyes, his very stance stiff and angry. "But, Zelgadis… we couldn't have known. We all made mistakes that day… it's not any one person's fault!"

"Guys, don't fight. There's no point to it. Lina's gone," Gourry's voice was empty, and I longed to tell him the truth: that Lina was only suspended between life and death until I could figure out a way to release her from the Demon King's possession.

I looked over to Gourry. He'd lost some weight, lost that light in his eyes that had shone so fiercely before. He was alive in body, but his spirit had taken a hard blow… to reveal the lie would only do more harm. With a sigh, I shook my head.

Something flashed through the link, as if Lina had saved up her energy and sent me a wealth of information. I blinked, absorbing it and understanding.

I stood and looked to my two remaining companions. "I'm going back. I'm going back to the castle. There's something that I must do. For Lina."

I couldn't explain it to them, they wouldn't understand. But somehow I knew that I must do something, and I knew how to do it. It would cripple me for years, but that was a small price to pay for what I had to do.

I had to destroy the Demon King of the North.

And Lina had told me how.

I went to the town's magic shop and spent more money than I had ever seen Lina possess. Even Zelgadis' eyebrows went up when the shopkeeper finally calculated the price. I paid it without word, signing the document and pressing the Seal of Saillune into the wax. My Daddy would pay it and complain about it later.

I didn't let it bother me.

The next stop was a clothier's. I exchanged my old white and pink outfit for a blue tunic and solid black pants. Over the tunic went a tight black bodice and then a belt, which housed the only weapon that I would ever allow myself to touch: the weapon that would help put an end to the Demon King.

If it hadn't been Lina, I never would have touched the dagger. The reasons aren't important. They belong to a different story.

At my throat went a talisman that supposedly came from the Kataart Mountains area, and thought to be a fragment of the Water Dragon King. It felt familiar, like the touch of Auntie Aqua's hand on my shoulder, so I almost believed it.

Bracers went around my wrists, laced tight and with inlaid orihalcon tracing the magical runes and symbols that I had dictated to the crafter. They were Chaos wards, expressly designed for one use.

A black cloak completed the clothing, but mine wasn't nearly as impressive as Lina's. Silver threads worked quiet spells around me, weaved into the fabric as it was created. I did not flinch at the cost. The work was well done, the Workings held true.

At this point, Zelgadis was obviously alarmed, but tactfully saying nothing. He still hadn't deciphered what I was doing, even though the clues weren't hidden from him.

In the morning, I finished my preparations and went for one last purchase: a half-staff of oak wood. This was less a necessity, and more a trivial item designed for me alone. I had an orihalcon gem setting placed in the end and put a special sapphire in the metal working. While the link with Lina was still active, there was a tiny spark of life within the gem. It alone could tell me when it was time. But that role would be played out in the years to come… after I succeeded in my duty.

Standing in the road, looking out towards the Kataart Mountains, I was nothing remotely like the girl who had limped into the town a week ago, crying and lost, weeping for the loss of her friend. My dedication and decision had changed me in that week, forcing me to grow into shoes that I had never intended to wear, but now fit all too well.

I had stepped away from white magics and become a sorceress.

Zelgadis walked up and looked at me quietly, those silent eyes taking in my change and one stony eyebrow lifted as his eyes met mine. "You can't become a sorceress in one day, Amelia."

I smiled thinly. It wasn't a pretty smile, and I could tell that it left him decidedly uneasy. "I am what I am, Zelgadis. And I am royally pissed off."

Gourry was completely clueless, and had managed to arrive for my last comment. With a frown, he scratched his head. "But you are Royalty, Amelia…"

I turned, not even phased by Gourry's non sequitur. "Yes, I am, Gourry. Yes, I am," Straightening my shoulders, I started to walk back towards the castle. I had a date with a Demon.

The trip to the castle was a quiet one, Zelgadis and Gourry each lost to whatever thoughts that they might have had about this. As for myself, I focused on the task at hand, preparing myself mentally for what was to come. I would have to challenge the Demon King of the North in his own castle, for he could not leave the grounds. I was pretty sure that he couldn't leave that room, and I knew that I couldn't let him touch me. If he touched me, it was over. So that wasn't an option.

At the gates of the castle, I turned and looked at Zelgadis and Gourry. "You don't have to come any further. This isn't your fight."

Gourry looked to me, and for the first time in a week, I saw the old light flash in his eyes. "That monster took Lina away. That makes it my fight."

Zelgadis simply nodded in concurrence. He didn't need to say anything.

I nodded and turned back to the gates. "Then the line is drawn here. So it begins."

The room hadn't changed; had I expected it to? Perhaps, but perhaps not. As I entered the room, the wards woven into the cloak began to glow, casting an eerie light about me. They were, however, for more than just effect: they allowed me to see without casting a Light spell.

Zelgadis obliged, however, and the secondary wards in the cloak began the near futile effort of keeping me protected.

"Demon King of the North, prepare yourself. I'm sending you back to the hell that you came from."

And so I began the spell. Silent at first, the words only within my mind. I could not let them know what it was that I was casting until it was beyond the point where they could stop me.

I drew the dagger, focusing my will into it, keeping just out of the reach of the Demon King who glared at me in impotent fury. He knew.

_Mother of all Creation, shining gold on the dark sea of Chaos…_

_Lord of Nightmares, heed my call._

My voice was a whisper now, the words that must be vocalized would be. I had to embrace the chaos within me, that force of will which allowed me to have no nature but that which I chose, that force of Self which was alien to the Demons and the Dragons, alien to the Mazoku, but such an integral part of us Humans.

"Let rise Your wrath against one who has opposed you."

The dagger in my hand began to glow with a faint yellow sheen. It was working.

"Grant me the Sword of Darkness and Chaos."

I heard Zelgadis' sharp intake of breath as he realized what it was that I was doing: I was casting the Laguna Blade with an oath bond. My very nature would change, and with that, my magic.

"I pledge myself to you, bind myself to you!"

The words were loud now, the power swallowing me, catching me in waves and washing over me. But I knew to focus on the dagger until the magic path was laid clear.

"Let our power become one as we walk the path of destruction!"

Gourry clued in, horror etching itself across his face. "Amelia!!"

"By your great power, let us deliver the final blow!" I cried as Zelgadis grabbed Gourry, keeping the swordsman from reaching me.

"It's too late!" I heard him call to Gourry just as I called the blade from nothingness.

"Laguna Blade!"

It hurt to look at it, the darkness laced with yellow fire. I felt it reach within me for my emotions, and suddenly I understood. Chaos was the product of rampant Human emotions… which Mazoku and the others could never understand. Willingly I gave it my love, my despair, my pain at losing Lina.

The Blade answered my heart, and with my bracers shining brightly, I swung the Blade down upon the Demon King of the North.

For a moment, a brief shimmer of the One shone in my mind, and then the Blade cut through the Demon King and darkness swallowed us all.


	6. Pilgrimage - Reunion: Part Three

Pilgrimage – Reunion

Once more, please forgive the formatting, they're starting to screen out some of the parameters that Word inserts into the html and I'm too lazy to change the coding!! –'Veshka

Pilgrimage – Reunion

Part Three

Amelia's voice faded into the quiet and Zelgadis opened his eyes. She kept her gaze at the book, missing the tear that slid down his cheek.

"Do you understand, Zelgadis? Why I could not tell you? She lives within that crystal… and yet, I have not the power to cast the necessary spells. I've trapped her for ten years… and there is no telling when…"

"You did what you thought was right, Amelia. That was all any of us could do. We did what we did because we thought we were right," Zelgadis replied. He looked over to her, amazed that he hadn't seen any of this before. How could he have missed the resurrection spell? The entire ice aspect of her… well, grave… hadn't sat right with him, but now it made sense. Why Amelia had insisted on being the one to lay the wards. But… if her magic was burned out… "How did you lay the wards, Amelia?"

She closed the book around her fingers, keeping place but looking at her handwriting again. "At first, some of the things I bought at the magic shop kept the wards up. They were tuned to me, so even if my magic was dormant, in my presence they lowered the wards. All I did was exchange the stones and the spell would be recharged for the next year." She looked at her hand in the book, fingers folded into the pages. "After a while, the lower level shamanic magics started to come back, so I could simply charge the stones without exchanging them."

He nodded quietly. "And where are your magics now?"

Amelia sighed. "Fireballs are easier now… I think easier than before. But… I can't cast an icicle lance yet. I mean, I know how it goes… except it has the same result as Sylphiel trying to cast a Flare Arrow."

For a brief moment, Zelgadis saw a miniature Flare Arrow in the back of his mind, complete with a totally mystified Sylphiel. "As long as it doesn't come to the point that you need to cast that…"

Amelia shook her head. "No… the students of the Royal Magic Guild are all sworn to my aid. Over half of the guards in the Palace are skilled mages. And little Lina has become quite… efficient at fireballs and mono volts."

Zelgadis refrained from snickering. "How much have you told her?"

"She has read all of my books. Even at nine, she has sworn to restore Lina as soon as she learns how," Amelia said. "She makes me so proud at times that it hurts."

"Hurts?" Zelgadis queried, looking back over to Amelia.

"It's hard to explain to anyone who doesn't have a child, Zelgadis. It really is…" she replied softly. "It is getting late. Shall I show you to your rooms?"

"I don't need to stay here. The inn is-" Zelgadis started, but was interrupted.

"You are my friend, Zelgadis. I won't have one of my friends staying at an inn when I have a roof for them to shelter under." She rose, setting the book on the seat beside where she had sat. "Come. Your rooms are this way…"


	7. Pilgrimage - The Beginning 3

Pilgrimage – The Beginning

Once more, please forgive the formatting, they're starting to screen out some of the parameters that Word inserts into the html and I'm too lazy to change the coding!! –'Veshka****

**Pilgrimage – The Beginning**

**Part Three**

The Demon King of the North was defeated. I stood in the ruins of the castle, my magic shattered, my will almost spent. The preparations I had made prior to that moment when I gave the Laguna Blade everything that I was had held. The three of us were alive, and the Demon King was not.

Lina however… Lina was lost within that twilight until my magic returned. For good, for bad. Whatever the future would hold, she would be there awaiting it.

The dagger I disposed of almost immediately. I cared little for weapons before; even less for them now. It had served its purpose.

We returned to the town and the small inn. The people knew what had happened and called me the Demon King Destroyer. I'd rather Lina had that name.

When morning came, we set off on our journey, but along the way it came to us that we had no desire to continue. Gourry had nothing, not even a whisper of thought. Zelgadis offered nothing. I didn't know what to say.

We were each of us locked in our own mourning.

Night came and with it, new decisions.

Zelgadis looked across the fire to me. "I'll take you to Saillune, Amelia. But I won't stay." He glanced across to Gourry. "What about you, Gourry?"

The blonde looked into the fire. I'd never seen him so… empty. He reminded me of Lina when he'd been stolen by Hellmaster. "I'll… probably find some mercenary group and join them."

"You could stay in Saillune, Gourry. And you too, Zelgadis. There's plenty of work there," I offered.

"And be stared at like a freak on display?" Zelgadis asked me quietly. I looked away. "No, Amelia. The offer is respected, but unnecessary. The cure for my curse is out there. I simply have to find it."

"I don't know that I'd do you any good, Amelia. What city wants a has-been swordsman anyway?" Gourry said, getting up and walking off towards the trees for first watch before I could object. "You two get some sleep. I'll take first watch."

Zelgadis went to his sleeping roll and I was left alone by the fire. If only I was stronger. I should have broadened my studies. White magics alone couldn't make it… Sylphiel was a clearly obvious illustration of that. Chaos… I would go back to Saillune and learn what I could, with or without my magics.

In the morning, we woke and took our separate paths, myself refusing Zelgadis' aid. He didn't want to be near me, and without Lina, what was there to bind us?

I did not hear from either Zelgadis or Gourry after that.

I myself went back to Saillune. I had nothing else.

When I arrived in Saillune, no one recognized me. Of course, I hadn't expected them to. I wasn't the timid little girl in white who had snuck out of the Palace after casting yet another disastrous spell. What I was… I had yet to discover. Yet I knew that I would learn my new place in time, and with that came an air of certainty that I carried.

The moment I walked into the room where my father was reading one of his books, I felt a change in the air and he looked up at me. Something passed before his eyes and he shook his head. "Amelia…! You… you look like your mother."

I drew up short, looking at him. Something Gracia had whispered to me once in the middle of a night long ago came back and I blurted the question without thinking. "Was Mother a sorceress, Daddy?"

His eyes softened and he turned to look across at the family crest on the wall. "Once, long ago, when I met your mother, she was a powerful sorceress. She could make men tremble with fear by simply looking at them. When I didn't tremble, she decided I alone was worthy of her. We married soon after that, and that was when she learned that I was the Crown Prince of Saillune. She put that part of her life away, became the loving mother you knew."

I looked away. But why hadn't she protected herself? He answered my unspoken question.

"Your mother told me once that she had passed her magic on to one of you two. But even she wasn't sure which one. Neither of you showed much inclination towards strong magic… until…"

I choked out the words. "Is it me, then? Am I the one?"

"The head of the Guild came to me just after we met Lina and Gourry. He told me that you and Lina shared the same magic, the same path within our understanding. He was who suggested that you learn alongside Lina."

I nodded slowly. That made sense. But did any of us have an inkling of the path that I would take, or how I would take it? I sighed. "I'm going upstairs… I think I'm back for a while, Daddy."

For once, he didn't leap up and embrace me in one of his crushing hugs. But then, neither had I. I felt distant, remote. Unattached to the world and uninvolved in its path. I'd left myself back in the cave with Lina.

Over the weeks I returned to the semblance of a Princess… yet I was hardly the effervescent girl who had left. People all around me were whispering that the adventures had mettled me, that I had grown into a beautiful and strong woman like my mother.

It was vaguely comforting.

I settled to learning the spells that I could not cast, memorizing that which was necessary. Until I could cast them again and test them it was all I could do.

Every night I sought counsel with the quarterstaff beside the bed, yet the sapphire remained still, no flicker within its indigo depths.

And then, one hopeless night, my father left me to go to my mother's side.

I became the Queen of Saillune.

I could only accept this fact with the same weary resignation that I seemed to accept everything with these days. I had no joy, no love of life, and restlessly walked the halls of the Palace in the night. The days were long and most often filled with the flurry of politics and the rush of daily life. I had no time to reflect on my loss of joy, and yet I had no time in which to try and find it.

Months passed and a new group of Guildstudents came to my attention. One in particular showed promise, and somehow, around him, I could feel the stirring of my magics.

I cancelled meetings, postponed events and generally cleared an entire day in which to consider this, and in my wanderings of the Palace grounds, came across the very object of my considerations. He was busy charming a small wild rabbit into sitting contentedly in his hands, and when he saw me approach, presented me with the tame creature.

His name was Andreas, and we spent a leisurely afternoon discussing magic theory while being entertained by the antics of the small rabbit that romped about us as we talked.

Was it too predictable that I began to schedule daily discussions with him?

Probably just as predictable as the fact that I slowly began to fall in love.

By this time, of course, I had taken lovers. It was a simple fact of life. Andreas soon joined my life as more than a fellow studier of magic, becoming a lover that I could do more than simply sleep with. Our relationship deepened, and I found us discussing the events of nearly a year ago.

To my surprise, he understood my reasoning behind what I did. He did, however, feel that I should have told Zelgadis and Gourry… but he respected my desires that they not know. It was wonderful, having another to talk to that was not a subordinate, or openly demonstrative of their desires to become the King of Saillune. Indeed, one day, he asked me who would take my place if he managed to convince me to run off with him forever.

I laughed and told him that the minister of affairs had done such a good job thus far, that I would fear little of any consequences for the country, but that he knew I simply could not run off any longer. He knew, how clearly he understood. And I loved him all the more for it.

In time, perhaps he might have become the King of Saillune. We were never granted the opportunity, however. The country of his father went to war, and he came to me, telling me that he felt obligated to his family. I understood, and he left to join the ranks of sorcerers to defend his country.

And among those ranks he died.

The time was passing quickly, and I felt a pull to visit the Kataart Mountains on the anniversary of Lina's death. I would have to exchange the stones at the cave in any event… and so I left with a small compliment of servants, ensuring that only those that absolutely knew I was leaving were the ones who needed to know.

The public statement was that I was going into seclusion for a time to keep vigil for the soul of a lost companion. It was, in its entirety, the truth. It simply left out the fact that I would be going to the spot where she died.

The journey was rough; it had been a year since I'd been on the road, and the servants were hardly road-worn and experienced travelers. I preferred to sleep in the open, away from towns and places where I would be recognized, but the strangeness of the journey and the fact that I was sick almost all the time prevented that.

Instead, I took to wearing veils and even dressing as my own servants in order to avoid being recognized.

When we arrived in the tiny little town where it had all started, the townspeople welcomed me with open arms and sad embraces. They too remembered the price paid for the destruction of the Demon King. But what I was not expecting was to find Zelgadis and Gourry within the ruins of the castle.


	8. Pilgrimage - Reunion: Part Four

Pilgrimage – Reunion

**Pilgrimage – Reunion**

**Part Four**

Zelgadis looked up from the book, closing it. He'd come to the end of what she had written of the first year. He remembered how ill she'd looked, recalled how angrily she'd pushed him away when he'd offered help. In a series of quick mental calculations, he did the math. Ah. That made sense. Likely she hadn't known it then.

He blushed at his own train of thoughts, forcibly refocusing his attentions on something else. It was early morning, and the sun was just beginning to rise in the window. As he set the book on the seat beside him, he noticed two green eyes peering at him through the crack in the door.

That would be Amelia's daughter.

He paused for a moment, and then offered the child a smile. "You may come in. Contrary to… appearances, I don't bite."

"I know," came the child's answer, yet she didn't enter the room.

He raised a stony eyebrow. "You do?"

"Yes. Mother told me," she replied.

"Well then, come in. I would like to meet you. If I recall correctly, we didn't have much of a meeting last night," Zelgadis said. He wondered if Amelia had been that shy when she was younger. Somehow he doubted it.

The door finally opened and the child tiptoed in, clad in a blue night-dress with bare feet. Her hair tumbled down in unruly locks, and Zelgadis knew right away that she'd snuck out of her room without the servants knowing it. A growing suspicion that she had more spunk than she wanted to reveal planted itself in the back of his mind.

She padded over to the chimera and looked at him with wide green eyes. His other eyebrow lifted to join the first, and he tilted his head as she looked at him. "Am I that strange-looking?"

She considered as seriously as a nine-year-old can consider, and then shook her head. "No."

"Then what do you see that interests you so?" Zelgadis asked, noting the fine features in her face. Yes… Amelia's child indeed with those cheekbones and the shape of her lips.

The girl smiled. "Someone who made my mother smile."

He blinked. Was Amelia that unhappy, then? "Your mother doesn't smile?"

Tangled black tresses swung back and forth as the girl shook her head. "Mother doesn't smile at other people."

"I've seen her smile at you," Zelgadis countered.

"I've seen her smile at you," she echoed, turning it back on Zelgadis, who blinked. That earlier suspicion of his took root. There was definitely more spunk in this child than she was letting on.

At that moment, there was a startled sound outside the room and a servant rushed in, catching up the girl's hand. "Miss Lina! We've been searching all over for you! Come now, you shouldn't be in here with just your night-dress on! And your hair! Oh… what will your mother say…"

The servant started walking the girl to the door, and the girl didn't truly protest, but offered no willing assistance in leaving the room.

When they were gone, Zelgadis shook his head and picked up the second book. 

Somewhere, a droplet of water began to form.


	9. Pilgrimage - Year Two, Part One

Pilgrimage – Year Two

**Pilgrimage – Year Two**

**Part One**

The ruins of the castle were still as vividly harsh as I recalled them. I picked my way over the rubble of the entrance, fighting the nausea of memory that was threatening me. It really shouldn't have been a surprise to see Zelgadis and Gourry wandering the ruins as well: we'd all lost Lina here.

At first, they seemed surprised to see me, both recovering from shock rather poorly. I too was shocked by their appearances. Gourry was harder; there was an edge to him that hadn't ever been there. An anger lurked deep within his eyes, and I knew that he was nursing his anger over Lina's death, using it as a finely honed weapon. Zelgadis hadn't changed. At all. The same blue stone skin, same quiet crystalline eyes.

I didn't know what to say. So I said nothing.

Zelgadis finally broke the silence, walking over to me and looking me in the eyes. "Amelia… you're sick…" He started a healing spell, but for some reason, it scared me. I'd stayed away from magic casting since that fateful day, devoting myself entirely to studies. I wasn't ready to cast it, or have it cast on me.

"I'm fine, you don't have to baby me!" I snapped. There was a startled flash of pain in his eyes, but then it was gone before it truly registered. I regretted my outburst immediately, but it was too late. I folded my resentment around me and walked into the crumbling room where the Demon King had taken Lina.

I took the staff from my belt, looking critically at the sapphire. Nothing. Of course, I did not expect anything. It was more a morbid curiosity to see if it would react to this place than anything else.

Returning the staff to my belt, I turned and exited the room, then the ruins, turning down the hidden path and approaching the mouth of the cave.

Zelgadis and Gourry were behind me. I could hear their footfalls.

I entered the cavern, and even though I could not feel them, I knew that the wards had dropped. I stopped at the entrance and exchanged the ward-stones, then continued on into the inner chamber.

The spells were still good; it looked as if we had only just laid her to rest.

It still tore at me to see her like this. I knew she was alive, but they didn't. They couldn't. There were no signs to tell them, and not even Lina herself could get out of the crystal.

Quite suddenly, I knew that I was going to be sick again. I could feel it. As they entered the chamber, I turned away from Lina's grave and ran from the cavern amidst Zelgadis and Gourry's startled cries.

I was lying in my room in the inn when Zelgadis knocked on the door. "Amelia?"

I rolled over, trying to ignore my friend, but he continued to knock. "Amelia, please. I can tell that there is something wrong and I want to help."

"Go away, Zelgadis. I don't need any help. I'm the Queen of Saillune. I help others; they don't help me." My words were so harsh, even to my own ears. But what choice did I have?

His footfalls receded, and I heard his door close. I stood, instructing my servants that I was going out, and no-one was to know that I had left. If anyone asked, I was not well and was sleeping.

I slipped out of the inn with a single servant and headed to the Cleric's. I was becoming tired of being ill, and this had lasted longer than anything I'd had before. I was wondering if it was because my magic had shifted.

The answer was nothing of the sort. In fact, it was far from anything I could have imagined.

"I'm _WHAT?_" I shrieked, feeling the color drain from my face.

"You are with child, dear lady. You should return to Saillune at once and seek the care of your Royal Physician. I suggest you hire out a coach this very hour," the Cleric replied amicably.

I thought I was going to faint. _Oh, Cepheid… Oh, Cepheid… I'm… I'm pregnant…_ I did a quick tally. Andreas. It had to be Andreas. _Oh, Cepheid… I'm…_ A sudden resolve fell over me, a calm collecting around me as I did the only thing I could do: accept fate.

"Very well. I shall leave post hence. You will be compensated for your trouble… and your silence." I was the Queen speaking now, and the Cleric nodded.

"Of course, Majesty. If I may be of any further service…"

I nodded. "I will need enough supplies that my trip home is not hindered by my becoming ill."

The Cleric hurried to gather the necessary items, and I called the one servant that had come with me. "Make arrangements. We leave for Saillune at once."

I said no farewells that year. Instead, I slipped out of the city before they even knew I had left my hotel room.

I buried myself in the Royal Duties. I was the Queen, and would shortly also be a mother. As I had little idea of how to do either, I took several aides into confidence and discussed with them the necessity of increasing my knowledge.

When I wasn't signing a proclamation (which I read in its entirety beforehand, as opposed to how I used to do things,) I was busy with meetings, reading history, and finally learning the people and what the Kingdom of Saillune was and needed.

As for the mothering part… I would have to do what every other mother in the world did when she had her first child: her best.

Time passed so quickly that I hardly expected the first pains, and was caught quite unprepared in the middle of a Consulate meeting. Needless to say, they were all pleased to already be in the city, and wished me the best as the physicians whisked me out of the meeting.

I am told that her birth was easy. I don't honestly recall much of it. I think, at one point, Lina was standing beside me and making offhand remarks about how I'd have to bring the baby to see her one day. But also remember that I was not entirely in my right mind at the time and it could have been a hallucination.

But I was clear of mind when they rested her tiny little shape in my arms and two brilliant green eyes blinked blearily back at me.

I named her Lina Wil Gracia Saillune after my lost best friend and lost sister, and then promptly fell asleep.

When I awoke, I was alone, and for a moment, I feared it was all a dream. But then I heard the servants whispering, and looked over to see them crowded around a cradle. They did not know I was awake, and they were all whispering over how lovely she was and I was glad to know that I had such good people.

When, at length, I called out, they brought her to me. She curled instinctively into me, and it was easy to forget everything in this world but her. I marveled over her tiny features, how perfect she seemed. And Andreas was a part of her.

Months whirled by, and it became a common sight to see me with her Royal Highness Lina in my arms at various meetings and events. Skeptics said that I was coddling her by keeping her close. My tart reply was that she and I had no one else; we would stay together.

And none of the dignitaries ever objected.

They brought her gifts from wherever they'd been last, and no gift was too poor for her. She was the Princess of them all, loved by even the beggars of the streets who lived at nights in the ward houses.

I tried to be a people-oriented Queen. I knew my people well, knew the streets of Saillune and walked them fearlessly with my daughter in arm. But all too soon came the days that I dreaded. Again loomed the anniversary of Lina Inverse's death. I could not take my daughter… she was yet too young. I had to decide what to do. Stay, and turn my back on the spells, turn my back on everything that I had done and know that Lina would truly die? Go and sacrifice a week with my daughter to preserve the life of my best friend?

I chose to go. The servants would take good care of the Princess, I had no fear of that. And as I packed my bags and prepared for the journey, I looked at myself in the mirror.

I was thinner and taller now. Two years had passed since I was the frightened girl stumbling into the Kataart Mountains with Lina, Zelgadis and Gourry. I was now a woman, a Queen. A mother with child. And yet, the sapphire did nothing to greet me, that old link silent.

I was not yet a sorceress.

I kissed my baby girl on the forehead and told her to be good while I was gone. I promised to bring her a gift. And then I left for the mountains on my own in the night. No servants, no weapon, no magic.

I suppose that I was lucky that my travels were smooth and my way unbarred by bandits or other uncouths. I had seen no Mazoku since the days of wandering with Lina, not even Xellos… and I knew that if he had half a clue that I had a child… well, he'd be all over that in an instant.

But nothing got in my way, and I arrived at the ruins slightly ahead of my schedule.

I explored them well, poking here and there, peering boldly into places that I would not have dared to stick my face in before. In the end, while I had amassed no treasure, I had learned a good deal more about the Demon King and the history of the Kataart Mountains.

While I was eating some dried meat and considering this new information, I saw Gourry approaching in the distance. He'd grown thinner, but his armor was new and his hair was now bound. Those were signs of a working mercenary.

When he neared, I stood, looking to him quietly. He blinked once or twice, and then offered a feeble smile. It didn't reach his eyes. I didn't expect it to.

We clasped hands, but he didn't offer any words. It looked like the years were wearing on him. As we turned to look at the remnants of the room, more footfalls echoed through the crumbling halls. It was Zelgadis, by the sound of those steps.

Even though it had been a year since I had last seen him, the events and my snapping at him came back clearly in my mind as if it had only been yesterday. I blushed violently, wishing there was some way I could apologize. But how could I, without revealing everything? Instead, I did my best to compose myself, and by the time Zelgadis actually came into the room, I'd managed to get myself back into some semblance of normal.

He looked at me for a moment, and then nodded quietly to the both of us. I knew that I had changed, and Gourry had changed… but Zelgadis… was still Zelgadis. It left me with mixed feelings, standing there with the two of them. I wanted to go back to the old ways, to teasing Zelgadis and hanging on every word he said to me. I wanted to watch Lina beat Gourry into the ground for some stupid comment.

But I knew none of that would happen.

We walked the room quietly, and then I turned to head off to the cave. I had to exchange the stones.

Of course they followed.


	10. Pilgrimage - Reunion: Part Five

Pilgrimage – Reunion

**Pilgrimage – Reunion**

**Part Five**

Zelgadis looked up from the book, contemplating that second meeting. He'd seen the changes, yes. And now, as he read these books written by Amelia, he began to see just how deeply Amelia had changed. The girl he remembered had been flighty, prone to posing and idealistic views. The woman who had written these was coldly realistic, looking at life with world-weary eyes and a heavy heart that she dared not reveal. She could not. She was the Queen.

To become Queen at nineteen, with no family or friends nearby… and then becoming a mother at twenty. Zelgadis shook his head. Amelia was made of tougher stuff than he had figured.

He rose and crossed the room, catching a servant in the hallway and asking for some coffee. The servant went to bring him coffee, and he turned back to the room, sitting on the sofa and picking the book back up.

Before continuing in his reading, he looked over and out the window, nearly dropping the book in shock.

Amelia was outside in the courtyard, dressed much like she had been that day she'd slain the Demon King. But that wasn't the disturbing thing. The disturbing thing was the light that glinted off the sword held firmly and expertly in her hands as she began what looked like her morning warm-ups.

"I thought Amelia didn't like weapons," he muttered to himself, watching the Queen step through the basic warm-ups with the blade, book finally slipping from his fingers to fall onto the seat beside him.

"She does not, your Lordship. However, she took up the sword when her daughter turned a year old…" the servant with his coffee replied.

Zelgadis' gaze flicked to the servant as he took his coffee and looked back out to Amelia. The 'Lordship' thing would wait. "Why was that?"

"An attempt on the Princess' life was made, and Queen Amelia barely succeeded in preventing it. Afterwards, she decided that in order to protect her child without magic, she would have to learn the ways of the blade."

Zelgadis' eyes narrowed. Amelia had made no mention of that. It would be somewhere in Year Two's book. He'd have to read on. He nodded, dismissing the servant and watching Amelia for a while. She was good, though there were things that he could show her, more efficient ways of handling the blade. Perhaps, if she let him, he might instruct her some.

Then again, she might just try to hire him again.

He picked up the book and began to read, considering all of the options that he had.


	11. Pilgrimage - Year Two, Part Two

Pilgrimage – Year Two

Pilgrimage – Year Two

Part Two

I entered the cave and exchanged the stones silently, wishing that there were another way. I knew that I could let the spells fade, let them fall and the crystals thaw.

But the problem was the Dynast Breath. You see, generally speaking, it's a strong offensive spell. It's not truly designed to do what I had it doing. Its original design was to encase your enemy in an ice crystal that was not penetrable by magic or blade. Then, at will, the crystal would snap and break into a million pieces… breaking your enemy right along with it.

It's said that even a Mazoku can be destroyed with a Dynast Breath, which would indicate that the spell also translates into the Astral Plane. The issue at stake therefore is more than simply the physical body.

Simply put, the crystal will not melt, will not be broken. Only the one who cast it can destroy it. And both ways of destroying it take magic. So, that leaves Lina alive within a crystal prison.

Can anyone blame me for feeling that I have betrayed her?

I stood there, looking at her within the crystal. Her eyes were closed, thankfully. There was nothing to attest to the fact that she still lived. Her shirt was sliced where her dagger had… where she had stabbed herself, but the skin underneath was whole and hale.

I noticed now that her lips were slightly parted. Had they been such before? I couldn't recall. Last year, I had not looked. This year… I made a mental note to check next year.

Gourry and Zelgadis finally approached, the two looking down to the figure in the crystal. None of us spoke; what could we say? What could be offered by one of us that hadn't been thought by the other? Could I say it wasn't fair? Yes, and I would be right. But life wasn't fair, and I had never thought that it could be. I could say that she was too young… but what does death care of age?

Lina knew the risks of the life that she had chosen. But to have turned her own blade against herself when I was too weak to do so… Lina did what she had to do. She always had, one way or the other. She fought Rezo because she had to. She fought Copy Rezo because she had to. Garv, Hellmaster, Valgarv, Dark Star. All those things she chose to do. Just as she chose her own death over that of her friends. I knew now that this was the second time she'd chosen that, but this time she was paying a much higher price. No, she wasn't dead… but she might as well have been.

Life went on.

I stood there in the silence, thinking how the world hadn't noticed that she was gone. Rumors still flew, people still swore that they'd seen her blow up an entire mountainside. And every rumor that I heard twisted my heart even harder.

I turned away, unable to continue standing there with my knowledge. A hand fell on my shoulder and I looked back to see Gourry looking at me quietly. His voice was a whisper.

"She'd be proud of you."

My lips twisted into a sour smirk. Sharp self-anger rose like bitter bile, and I found myself taking on the distantly cold expression of royalty. "I have done nothing that she would be proud of, Gourry."

He lifted his hand, turning away to look at her again.

I walked out of the cave, knowing the wards would allow them to depart safely.

As I approached the hotel, someone landed beside me, walking in pace with my own steps.

"You've changed, Amelia."

"Have I, Zelgadis?" I countered without looking at him. I was going to burst into tears at any moment, and quite frankly, I didn't want to do it in front of him because I knew how it annoyed him. I'd always annoyed him. So why did he try…?

"You seem… I don't know. Distant," he tried.

I stopped, turning to look at him, and the expression on my face seemed to startle him. "What I am is tired, Zelgadis. I am a Queen who has things piling up at home, and I am sure to have any number of critical problems when I return to Saillune."

"Then why are you here?" He countered.

"I am here because I have to be," I replied. And without further elaboration, I entered the hotel and went to my room.

The moment I hit my bed, I burst into tears. I missed my daughter terribly, missed my best friend… everything I'd ever lost came crashing over me in a swell of painful emotions. More than anything, I wanted it all back. I wanted Lina, I wanted Andreas. I wanted my family. I wanted to be that shining fifteen-year-old without a soul-consuming sadness.

I froze, my breath catching in my throat when a hand touched my head in a gentle caress. When I lifted my head and looked, the room was empty. No one was there. But I had felt the touch, I was positive of that. As I sat there, trying to make sense of it, a knock came at my door.

"Yes?" I asked, unwilling to rise and actually open the door.

"My lady, I heard you were in town," the Cleric. It was the Cleric who had assisted me last year. I slid off of the bed and walked to the door, opening it and allowing him in.

He took my hand and looked to me so gently. "How are you, my lady?"

I closed the door with my free hand and looked to him. "I am ill of spirit. But what else can be said on the anniversary of her…"

He nodded as my voice trailed off. "You were the best of friends, this I know. And of the…?" He lifted a brow, and I knew what he was asking. My hand slipped from his and I walked over to the desk and sat in the chair.

"She is well and precious. I miss her very dearly."

The Cleric smiled again, pulling a parcel from his sleeve and presenting it to me. "Take this to her, then if you will. It is not much, just a token of our esteem."

I took the parcel, feeling the slight weight. It would wait until I got home and then I would discover it with her. I smiled again. "You do me too well. I have nothing to thank you with…"

He raised a hand in protest. "We ask for nothing, Majesty. The knowledge that you and yours are well is more than enough for us. We are Clerics in the Ways of Cepheid. We need no more."

I nodded and opened my mouth to say more to him, but another knock came at the door, followed by a concerned voice. "Amelia? Dinner is being served." I wondered what he and Zelgadis had done to decide who would come to my door.

"Thank you, Gourry. I will be down in a few moments." I rose from the chair and turned to the Cleric. "If you will excuse me…"

The Cleric nodded, opening the door for me and following me out into the hall. "If I may ask but one more thing: her name?"

I paused for a moment, turning away from the Cleric now and moving towards the stairs. "Lina. Her name is Lina." And I left him there in the hallway.

Dinner was an uncomfortable event, the three of us sitting at the table and picking at the food. The air around us felt charged with emotion, yet none of us seemed to know what to do about it. Finally I set my spoon down and stared at the soup in front of me.

"I'm sorry. I've been mean and nasty to the two dearest friends in my life, and I apologize."

Silence. I didn't know what hurt more. My guilt at being mean to them, or the silence that came after my apology for it. I stood, pushing my chair in, fighting to see through the tears that were filling my eyes. When I turned around to leave, someone was in my way.

I looked through my tears at the blonde man standing there, Gourry looking down at me still in that silence. I ducked my head so that I wouldn't have to see him and when I took a step around him, I was suddenly enveloped in a crushing hug.

Lina would have kicked him to Sairag. But I just stood there, trying to compose myself, and failing miserably.

"It's okay, Amelia. We all miss her. We've just been missing her the wrong way," Gourry said.

I looked up at him, trying to understand. "What?"

"We've been so busy missing her that we've lost sight of what she meant to us," Gourry replied, looking at me. "I mean, yeah, when I first met her… I thought she was a little kid. But she was a lot more than that."

I managed to squirm out of his embrace. "How did you meet her, anyway, Gourry? Lina never told me the whole story…"

Gourry told us the tale of how he thought he was saving this ravishing redhead from a group of bandits… only to find out that the redhead was a skinny flat-chested little girl who reminded him more of his little sister.

By the time he finished the story, we were on the floor of his room and I was laughing more than I'd laughed in two years.

I shook my head slowly. "I'm amazed that she didn't outright kill you then and there!"

"Yeah…" he replied. "Me too."

I looked at Zelgadis. _He has a story too,_ I thought suddenly. "Istill don't know how you met Lina and Gourry, Zelgadis."

He blinked, caught offguard by my question, then looked at Gourry for a moment. "That group of bandits happened to have something that I was tracking when Lina stole it from them."

I laughed. "You're kidding, right?" He shook his head. "You're serious? Oh… it was the Philosopher's Stone, right?"

Zelgadis nodded, and began to tell the story. How he'd tried to buy the statue and the prices she'd named. That hadn't surprised me. What had surprised me was that he'd had to fight her. But when he explained why, and how, I got a little peevish."

"Zelgadis! You know better than to do that to a girl! Especially _then_!" I was, of course, referring to his unkind kneeing of Lina in the stomach during _that_ time.

He had the grace to blush. Violently. "I didn't know her then!"

"That's no excuse!" I felt an old speech of love and justice fighting its way to my lips, and looked at Gourry in astonishment. "Gourry… how did you know? How did you know that remembering her would make me feel better?" I did. I felt happier, lighter than I had in a long time.

Gourry smiled and this time, it reached his eyes. "Because, remembering brings them closer to us, and then they aren't gone."

I agreed, and we spent the rest of the evening remembering how we met and the beginning of it all.

In the morning, we left on far better terms than we had arrived.

We'd see each other again next year.


	12. Pilgrimage - Reunion: Part Six (To be Co...

Pilgrimage – Reunion

**Pilgrimage – Reunion**

**Part Six**

Zelgadis was chuckling as he looked up. Yes, he could have treated Lina better. But he was busy being the cold-hearted mysterious swordsman at the time. And he'd more than made up for it, hadn't he? He shook his head in amusement and as he did so, his attention was caught by Amelia outside.

She was standing with her hands before her, obviously focusing in on herself. As he watched, she produced a fireball that even Sylphiel could out-do and looked at it in disgust before it went pop! in a most unspectacular fashion.

It didn't occur to him that he might smile. Instead, he let his breath out and sighed. Amelia had once been able to toss the Ra-Tilt right alongside him, and now to see her magically crippled like that…

It occurred to him that he wasn't alone. Turning, he saw Lina's brilliant green eyes looking at him quietly. Something in those eyes… something was odd about the girl. _Yeah, right. Reality check time, Zelgadis Graywords. What do you know about children? Other than the fact that they tend to annoy you. Which is probably what's so strange about this one… she doesn't annoy me._ "Hello, Lina."

"You were watching Mother," the girl said without preamble.

He blinked at her. "I have never seen your mother with a sword."

The girl nodded. "You like her, don't you?"

Again he blinked. _Check that, she might just be annoying._ "Your mother and I… share an old friendship. As one friend likes another, yes. But your mother is not for me."

The child smiled vaguely and left the room without another word.

The chimera began to ponder precisely why he'd come to the Palace. Had he come because of Amelia? There had been some irresistible pull to come and talk to Amelia, even though it had only been a few months since he had seen her last.

He looked back out of the window, and for a moment, his senses flared in a fashion that they hadn't done in a very long time. He could almost swear that Lina Inverse was in the room with him. Almost hear her breathing. He turned to look.

There was no one there, of course.

Inside a darkened room, something blue flickered.

At the same time, far off in the distance, the droplet of water fell.

Zelgadis shook his head, looking at the book. Enough reading for now. He'd been burying himself in the past so much that he was imagining things. Time instead, to talk to Amelia and ask the questions that needed answering.

A scream from Amelia outside broke his train of thought, and without considering it, he shot through the window.


	13. 

Pilgrimage – Reunion

Pilgrimage – Reunion

Part Seven

The only reason that Amelia didn't hit the ground was that fact that Zelgadis was a good deal faster than your average mortal. He caught her, and she whispered one word before passing out in his arms.

"Lina…"

_ Lina? What the Hell?_ He looked around both physically and mentally. Guards were approaching, but other than that there was nothing. No strange sense… and no Lina.

But why was he uneasy? Was it because he'd thought he'd sensed Lina just moments before Amelia screamed? Things were getting strange, and Zelgadis was tired of strange. He just wanted a normal life…

The guards came running up, checking themselves when they saw that it was only Zelgadis, and not an attacker.

"Lord Graywords! What happened?" A guard asked.   
Zelgadis made a mental note to find out why everyone kept insisting on calling him 'Lord' and looked at the man. "Take her blade. We're too exposed out here." And with that cryptic answer, he turned and carried the unconscious Queen inside the Palace. 

He carried her into the vast rooms held by the Queen amidst a flurry of servants and somewhere the back of his mind noted that Amelia's daughter was quiet and sedate as she walked beside him. She'd caught up with them in the foyer, and simply fallen into step beside him without asking what had happened.   
Once he rested Amelia on the bed, the physicians immediately crowded around the stricken Queen and began to listen to pulse and breathing. Zelgadis tacitly got out of the way. Lina moved over to stand beside him, watching the physicians flutter around her mother. She didn't look at him, but he was surprised to feel her tiny hand slip into his. He looked down to see her watching the physicians intently; the only sign of anxiety the tight grip of her hand on his. He let his fingers curl gently around her hand and looked back to the bed, keenly aware that he was the only one in the room that knew her daughter was there.   


Where was she? What was going on? Amelia looked around, seeing nothing but darkness around her. "Hellooo?"

A gold brilliance flared around her, and she had to look away. Even without her magic senses, she knew beyond shadow of a doubt what was happening.

The Golden One stood before her in the form of Lina Inverse.

"Amelia!"

But that wasn't the Golden One's cold voice. It wasn't the Golden One at all. It was Lina herself… or as much of herself as she could be. Amelia started, feeling the urge to blubber all over herself rising. "Lina!"

"Amelia, you have to go back."

Amelia blinked in confusion. "Go… back…? Am I dying? What's happening, Lina?"

Lina folded her arms and scowled. "You're not dying, Amelia. But you have to go back to the cave. And you have to go now. There's no time."

"Lina! How? My magic is gone!" Amelia felt the pull back to consiousness cash over her and the image of Lina was fading.

"There's no time."

"There's no time."

The little hand in his tightened its grip at the words whispered by the Queen as she opened her eyes. "There's no time. We have to go back!"

Zelgadis looked at Amelia through the herd of physicians. "What? Back where?"

Amelia glared at the physicians who were trying to keep her lying down. "Get off of me. We have to go back to the cave where we left her. We have to go now. She says there's no time."

A water droplet fell.

A blue brilliance filled the corner of Amelia's room, a door unseen bursting open from sheer magical force.

The quarterstaff sat in what Zelgadis would have called a closet, the sapphire set atop it burning with a blue fire. He raised an eyebrow as he looked at it, and young Lina took a step backwards, tugging at Zelgadis' hand. He too inadvertently stepped back.

Amelia shoved a physician out of the way and moved off of the bed, walking over to take up the staff in her hands. When she did so, the blue fire crept up her arms, encircling her like two insidious magical snakes. They twined around her and she closed her eyes, ignoring the worried cries of onlookers.

She knew what was happening.

She felt it, the magic reawakening. That which she had spent time learning in theory suddenly became a certainty. That which she had learned as an abstract became founded in reality, the magic knowledge coming to life as only a dormant spell can.

Diem Wind.

Dill Brand.

Holy Bless.

Megido Flare.

Dragon Slave.

Rune Flare.

Laguna Blade.

All the spells that she had cast before, plus all the new ones that she had studied in the years past. They were all at her command now, ready and waiting.

The sapphire dimmed, the tendrils of magic fading. Zelgadis and young Lina watched in breathless anxiety to see what had happened to Amelia.

Amelia opened her eyes. Without explaining to anyone what had just happened, she walked over to the window and opened it. Reaching out one hand, she gave a little half-smile and called the spell. "Fireball!"

A brilliant sphere of fire formed into her hand, which she immediately lobbed outside. Once it was safely outside, her eyes narrowed. "Break."

The resultant explosion was quite impressive.

Somewhere in the back of Zelgadis' mind, a little voice was being very secretly glad that his hand was made of stone because Amelia's daughter would have cut off the circulation of blood to his fingers otherwise. But it was being so secretive about it that Zelgadis himself wasn't even aware of it.

And that was probably a good thing.

Amelia stuffed the staff in the belt at her waist and looked at her daughter again. "Absolutely not. You can't go and that is final."

"But mother! You've told me that you'd take me to see her! And the Clerics… They gave me so many things over the years. I should be a proper Princess and go thank them in person," Lina Wil Gracia Sailune explained.   
Zelgadis took it all back. The girl had a lot of spunk. More than that, she was deceptive, conniving, intelligent, and a far faster thinker on her feet than her mother was. It was beginning to amuse him to no end, and a snicker escaped him.   
He was rewarded with a fierce glare from Amelia. "Zelgadis, I do not need you siding with her right now!"   
Zelgadis only lifted an eyebrow and folded his arms.   
Lina mimicked him.

Amelia sighed heavily. "I'm outnumbered, aren't I? Fine. You can go. I don't have the time to stand here and argue with you about this. But this isn't a pleasure trip. Now go get packed!"

It didn't take them long before they were on the road, the three looking suspiciously like a simple family on a trip. Amelia was suitably rushed, young Lina excited, and Zelgadis keenly aware of what the group looked like. But Amelia had commandeered a carriage, and they would be there in only three days.

Three days. Amelia was afraid that it would be too long. She fretted over it as they bumped over the roads.

"Amelia, as neither of us can cast a teleportation spell or turn into a dragon, we're just going to have to make do with this," Zelgadis replied calmly. They'd stop at Solaria first, then Vezendy, and finally Gyria before they left on foot for the cave. He'd already made arrangements for fresh drivers and horses to be waiting at all the stops, and if they all slept in the carriage, they could drop the trip to just over a day and a half. But then, he was a chimera. Sleep was optional. Technically, he could play the part of the driver himself… but then no one would be watching Amelia and her daughter.

Amelia sighed unhappily as she looked out of the window at the passing scenery. "I just don't know what to do. Now that my magic has come back… it seems as if I should know something."

Lina looked to her mother. "Why don't you just rest, mother? It's going to be a while before we get there, regardless."

Amelia frowned at her child, as if about to say something, and then shook her head. "I suppose I ought to." With the hint of laughter in her eyes, she looked at Zelgadis. "If she bothers you too much, you have my permission to put her on the roof."

Zelgadis simply nodded.

Lina looked at her mother and Zelgadis with horror. "But mother! There's nothing to hold onto… and the bugs… and…" It dawned on her that they were playing a joke, and she folded her arms and huffed.

"We were only joking, Lina. I wouldn't put you on the roof of the carriage…" Zelgadis said.

The girl looked at him.

"I'd hang you upside down from the ceiling," he finished.

Amelia hid her laughter and settled in to nap.

Needless to say, it was a long time before young Lina said anything else.

Zelgadis was lost in his own thoughts when a hand patted at his arm. He looked over to see Amelia's daughter looking at him. In question, he raised a stone eyebrow, and she looked down at her hand, pulling it away. He tilted his head at her.

"You don't have to be afraid of me."

She whispered, looking across at her mother, who seemed to be sleeping peacefully. "I'm not. I just didn't want to bother you. You looked so sad."

He regarded her quietly for a moment. What had he been thinking about when she'd tapped on his arm? He couldn't recall. But given the situation, he was probably remembering the past. He did a lot of that. "I was contemplating our journey."

"Oh," she said. "I wish I had known Lina Inverse. It's almost hard to believe that mother was a part of those adventures. But you were a part of them too… and you're right there… as real as I am."

Zelgadis nodded. "It's true, your mother was involved in a lot of adventures. A lot of things couldn't have been done without her. And she did defeat the Demon King of the North."

The girl gave this a good deal of thought. "It's still hard to believe that my mother…"

Zelgadis looked over to the sleeping Amelia. "Sometimes it's hard for me to believe too… and I was there. Lina, your mother has changed so much in the past ten years… I'm not even certain that she's the same person anymore. She's a lot stronger than I am."

_ "Lina, your mother has changed so much in the past ten years… I'm not even certain that she's the same person anymore. She's a lot stronger than I am."_

Amelia had heard the words; she was awake and listening. Zelgadis' words gave her cause to think. Had she really changed all that much? In retrospect, perhaps she had. It was enough to bear some thinking. She let herself go back to sleep while considering what it was that had made Zelgadis think that she was so much stronger than him.

It was late when they pulled into Solaria, and only Zelgadis was awake, Lina having curled up beside her mother and fallen asleep as well. He stepped out of the carriage to make sure that the horses and driver were exchanged, and was startled to hear a familiar voice seeking passage to Gyria.

"Gourry," Zelgadis called out. "Over here."

The blonde turned, walking over to Zelgadis. "Zelgadis! Why are you here? Are you going to Gyria too?"

"There and to the caves beyond. Get in, but be quiet. They're sleeping," Zelgadis said, opening the door to the carriage.

"They?" Gourry asked before stepping in.

Zelgadis nodded. "They. I'll explain on the way." He watched the new driver check the hitches and entered the carriage himself. And then they were on their way to Vezendy.

[][1]

   [1]: 5-8-01/slayerspilgrimage/pilgrimagereunion8.html



	14. 

Pilgrimage – Reunion

Pilgrimage – Reunion

Part Eight

Gourry was suitably impressed. Amelia had a daughter. It never occurred to him to ask about the father. Zelgadis had a minor concern that the blonde now mercenary would think the girl was his. But any fears were absolved when the child woke up and opened her eyes to look at Gourry and he looked to Zelgadis.

"She's got pretty green eyes. Too bad she isn't your daughter too, Zelgadis," Gourry said.

Zelgadis felt the blush creep across his cheeks, and then frowned. "How would you know, Gourry?"

Gourry put up a finger. "That's easy. The fortune-teller used to say that two people with the same color eyes couldn't have a child with different colored eyes. It was one of the ways she could tell if someone was faithful."

Zelgadis stared at Gourry.

Lina blinked at the blonde for a moment, green eyes absorbing his appearance, and then looked to Zelgadis. "This is Gourry Gabriev?"

Gourry looked even more impressed. "Wow! I don't even know your name, little girl! How did you know mine?"

She blinked, looking again to Zelgadis for a moment before answering with an acerbic air. "I am Lina Wil Gracia Saillune. And you fit the description of Gourry Gabriev that my mother gave me precisely. Right down to the intellect."

"Lina," Zelgadis started to warn the girl about insulting her elders, but Gourry interrupted.

"Wow! She even knows how smart I am!!"

Zelgadis decided right then to give up. A sweatdrop formed and ran down the back of Lina's head. "Mom wasn't kidding…"

Gourry grinned, leaning over to look at Lina. "So how old are you, little girl?"

Lina looked at him again, and sighed. "Nine."

"Wow. I don't remember being nine," Gourry said back.

Zelgadis sighed. This might have been a bad idea. He decided to ignore the two until it was necessary, instead turning his attention to the world passing by outside.

What would they find when they got to the cave? He knew now that Lina wasn't dead… and Amelia had her magic back. But what had Amelia meant by 'out of time'?

He considered. The spells that Amelia had cast were either the kind that were renewed by the stones that she exchanged each year, or they weren't the kind that could simply be dispelled.

But he had sensed Lina in the room with him. And then Amelia had fainted and spoken with Lina. Was it that bond that they shared? That strange telepathic type of spell? In that case, what amount of power had Lina had to use to contact Amelia? Was something happening that Lina needed help?

His blood ran cold. Was it the Demon King of the North? Was all of this a ploy? Had Lina been overcome by the Demon King's residual memories while she lay in the suspended life of the Dynast Breath?

While Zelgadis was lost in these thoughts, Amelia was having similar concerns in her dreams.

She was running in the darkness, calling for Lina. Every time she got close enough to reach out to touch the sorceress, the illusion of Lina faded and she was left holding air.

It was wearing her out, all of this running, and finally she put her hand on something solid, looking at the figure in shock.

It was the statue of the Demon King.

Amelia shrieked in her dream, seeing him holding Lina by the throat in mid-air, a memory of the moment when the Demon King killed Lina.

Killed Lina.

She was turning blue in his grasp.   
She wasn't breathing.

The Demon King had killed Lina right then.

It was Lina's spirit that she had heard after that, not Lina herself.

Who was it that she had resurrected?

The realization shocked Amelia out of her fitful sleep, and she sat up with a yelp, eyes opening wide.

Zelgadis, Gourry, and young Lina looked at her.

[][1]

   [1]: 5-8-01/slayerspilgrimage/pilgrimageinterlude.html



	15. 

Pilgrimage – Interlude

Pilgrimage – Interlude

She was standing in a sea of blackness, aware that time was passing without her. But she also knew that the Demon King had not been totally destroyed. She could feel his magic building, his power being restored by something she couldn't sense within this blackness.

She'd been lucky. Gourry was easy to push in the right direction, and with Zelgadis near Amelia, all she'd had to do was push Amelia down the path that the girl had previously been afraid of.

But there was another aura with them, a powerful yet unawakened aura, and she didn't know what to make of it.

She'd wait.

It was all she could do until Amelia got there.

Wait and plan.

She was good at that. After ten years, she had a lot of plans.


	16. 

Pilgrimage Reunion - Part Nine

**Pilgrimage – Reunion**   
**Part Nine**

The carriage was deathly silent after Amelia explained her train of thought. She knew that Zelgadis and her daughter understood. But while she knew how Gourry had gotten there, she wasn't sure that he understood what she had told them.   
"So you think that it isn't Lina in there at all?" Gourry queried.   
Amelia nodded. "Right. I'm afraid that it may be the Demon King. He may have killed her before he started to control her. Which would mean that I resurrected the Demon King and not Lina before I locked the body in the Dynast Breath spell."   
The body. She had to force herself to stop referring to the physical representation as Lina. It might not be the spirited sorceress at all.   
Amelia sighed. "And if that's what I've done… I have to fix it. I can't just leave the Dynast Breath spell intact. I either have to dispel it… or destroy it."   
Gourry thought this over. "So one way you just let the spell fade and Lina walks away, and the other…?"   
"The other way she allows the spell to complete… which shatters the crystal and everything within it," Zelgadis finished.   
There was silence again as they pulled into Vezendy. 

The swapout was quick, and they were on their way to the city of Gyria. 

Amelia was silent, eyes closed as she contemplated what she had done. She'd made possibly the biggest mistake of her life. But she'd felt Lina push back the Demon King when he'd used her hands to stab Gourry. Didn't that mean something? Anything at all?   
She opened her eyes to scan the occupants of the carriage. They were all asleep, and she decided that she too should sleep. There was much to do when they got there. 

A water droplet fell. 

Amelia opened her eyes the instant they arrived in Gyria. There was a driving need to be in that cave, and she felt its incessant tug as much as she felt the hand of her daughter in hers.   
The Cleric was pleased to meet young Lina, and the girl managed to enchant everyone she smiled at. Sweet, good mannered, extremely polite… she was everything that Amelia wanted her to be… and Amelia hadn't said a thing to her.   
But all too soon, preparations were complete. It was time to go to the cave. 

She was coming. Lina Inverse could feel it. There was time enough. And the strange aura was coming as well. But that didn't concern her as much as the presence of the Demon King. She knew that it would be a mad dash to reclaim the physical form within that crystal… and she had to win. She'd have to. 

Amelia stood just outside the cave entrance, feeling the raw conflicting energies. The wards were broken, the stones drained cold of all magic. As she stood there looking at the dead ward-stone in her hand, she felt her daughter tug at her arm. Zelgadis and Gourry had gone in ahead, and there wasn't any time to dally. With a faint smile to her daughter, Amelia took her staff from her belt and the two walked into the cave. 

"Amelia, there's a puddle under here," Zelgadis' voice held concern.   
Amelia nodded, holding up the dead stone. "The Grey Buster spell has been broken. And the ward-stones too."   
Gourry was standing silently by the slender form encased in ice, and Amelia walked up to him, looking down at the figure frozen in time and ice.   
Young Lina put her hands on the ice and looked at the woman that she was named for. "She seems so… empty. If you resurrected her, Mother, wouldn't there be a life-aura?"   
Amelia blinked. She hadn't thought to check for that. She hadn't done the most basic of magic senses. She'd been too upset ten years ago, and it hadn't occurred in the years that came after. But her daughter was right. There was no life-aura, no magical indication that a living soul was in any way attached to the body before them.   
But even as Amelia reached out her hand to the crystalline structure, young Lina shrieked and pointed upwards to the wall.   
Reflexively, all the adults looked up.   
Hanging in the air, just above their heads, was a faint aura.   
Amelia said it first. "Lina!" 

Gourry frowned in confusion. The others were looking at this blank spot in the ice wall, and Amelia had called out Lina's name. But he didn't see anything there at all. In fact, what he felt was something behind him. And it was big, bad, and really ugly.   
Drawing his sword, he turned to see a black shape hovering, and knew that it was what was left of the Demon King. "Zelgadis! Behind you!"   
The chimera spun, blade automatically drawn.   
Amelia didn't look. The aura that felt so very much like Lina came closer, touching both herself and her daughter. Amelia suddenly knew what had to be done, as did young Lina.   
Young Lina turned, looking to the Demon King of the North's remaining fragment, the fragment that had been in control of Lina and therefore not destroyed by Amelia, as Zelgadis and Gourry engaged it in a decidedly off-balance battle. Physical swords had no effect, and only Zelgadis could enchant his sword. She closed her eyes, focusing her will. She knew the words, but knew the actions of the heart could often speak louder. 

Suddenly, Lina Inverse understood with that simple touch. The child. That girl was the source of the unknown aura from before. The girl standing right there beside Amelia. She was a powerful and wild force that was concentrating on her mother. What on earth was she doing? How had the child come to be, and what would happen after this sequence of events?   
Lina Inverse couldn't know.   
But the child beside Amelia knew what had to be done. 

Amelia opened her hand, and the crystal prison of ice began to crack. 

Lina Wil Gracia Saillune opened her eyes. 

The aura that was Lina Inverse moved. 

Gourry shouted a warning. 

Zelgadis fired off a Ra-Tilt. 

Suddenly, the cave lit with a brilliant light. 

Time froze.   


Amelia opened her eyes with a jolt, standing and looking around the room in a panic.   
She was the only one standing, the others lay collapsed on the floor of the cave. The ice crystal was gone, and so was the still form of Lina Inverse.   
As Amelia turned to walk to her daughter, she saw movement out of the corner of her eye.   
Two distinct figures stood there on the Astral Plane, locked in battle. Lina Inverse and the Demon King of the North. As Amelia watched, Lina took the brunt of an attack, flying backwards. Without thinking of the consequences, Amelia darted into the Astral between them, hands drawn together. If Lina lost, everyone would die, and Amelia had to protect her daughter.   
"Lord of the Darkness and Four Worlds, I beseech thy fragments; by all of the power thou possesseth, grant the heavens' wrath to my hand!" Amelia began.   
"Unleash the sword of dark, freezing nothingness; by our power, our combined might, let us walk as one along the path of destruction!" Lina continued, together with Amelia.   
Both Lina and Amelia cast off the Laguna Blade without blinking. The blades shaped, formed, and cut through the fragment of the Demon King.   
Darkness fell. 

_ She was floating._   
_ There was a voice in the distance, a voice that she knew calling out to her. She knew that voice, didn't she?_   
"Mother!"   
_ Her daughter. Lina. She was calling her._   
"Mother, open your eyes!"   
_ She was so tired._   
Four figures huddled around the fallen figure in black, and the girl called out again. "Mother! Please!" Her voice took on an edge of fear, sharpening the child's focus. With powers she didn't know she had, she began to reach out for her mother.   
_ So very tired…_   
"Amelia!" Zelgadis tried, casting a healing spell. He wasn't the one to use resurrection, and he knew better than to try a recovery spell.   
_ She'd failed…_   
Gourry sat dumbfounded, looking at Amelia's closed eyes and drawn face. One minute she'd been standing there, then in the next, she'd fallen over and the thing that he and Zelgadis had been battling was gone. And then the girl, Amelia's daughter, had screamed.   
_ Rest now…_   
"Amelia, you have a hell of a lot of explaining to do, so you'd better open your eyes and start talking."   
_ …_[][1]

   [1]: 5-8-01/slayerspilgrimage/pilgrimagereunion10.html



	17. 

Pilgrimage Reunion - Part Ten

**Pilgrimage – Reunion**   
**Part Ten**

  
  


"Amelia, you have a hell of a lot of explaining to do, so you'd better open your eyes and start talking."   
Amelia heard the voice and knew that she hadn't failed at all. But opening her eyes… it felt like a heavy suffocating blanket of darkness was tucked in all around her. It was… comfortable. She'd just rest a little while, right?   
Just rest a few more moments… 

Amelia still hadn't opened her eyes. The child grabbed Zelgadis' hand and he almost didn't notice until the additional power flowed into his healing spell. He'd read of people who could boost others' magics, but never before had he felt the rawness of such a connection. The power flowed with a wildness that he could barely contain. But all he truly needed to do was direct it. 

The pull was undeniable. She was tired, but she had to answer it. She owed them that much, yes.   
She opened her eyes. 

The cave was dim, lit only by the natural reflection of light by the ice crystals. One by one, faces came into focus as Amelia struggled to consciousness.   
Her daughter Lina.   
Zelgadis.   
Gourry.   
Lina Inverse. 

Tears came to Amelia's eyes as she focused on those of her long-missing friend. She reached up slowly to the restored sorceress and felt the weight of her daughter as the girl threw herself across her mother. Amelia smiled faintly, her other arm cradling her child as she looked to the woman beside her.   
"Amelia…" Lina shook her head. "That was foolish," she chided gently, cupping Amelia's hand in hers.   
"I'm sorry, Miss Lina. I guess… I guess I still haven't learned when not to cast the big stuff…" Amelia whispered softly.   
Lina Inverse smirked. "Yeah, well, when we get back, you've got a lot of explaining to do. Like how in the name of Cepheid you learned to cast the Laguna Blade."   
Zelgadis watched Amelia's daughter. He and the girl both knew the cold truth: Amelia wouldn't be explaining anything. And he couldn't do anything about it. He watched with a sick sense of dread, knowing the future and powerless to do a thing to change it.   
Amelia hugged her daughter tighter against her, feeling the untrained magic trying to push back the encroaching darkness. "No, Miss Lina. I think you'll have to read the books…"   
The unspoken truth came to Lina Inverse, and for the first time in a long time, the redheaded sorceress burst into tears. "Amelia, no!" She cast several healing spells in quick succession, but still she could feel Amelia slipping off. She gripped her friend's hand tighter, as if somehow her touch could keep her with them.   
"Miss Lina… I'm sorry…" The blanket of darkness was enfolding her, cushioning her in a soft embrace. She was so very tired… and the darkness was so inviting… rest. Yes. At last, she should rest.   
"Amelia!" Lina Inverse couldn't stop it. She didn't have the magics.   
Deep blue eyes flickered over the black hair of her sobbing child, focusing on aquamarine ones that were flecked with pain. "Take care… of Lina…"   
A moment passed, and he nodded slowly once, closing his eyes as he did so, hiding the pain from her. She didn't need to know.   
She smiled ever so faintly, and then her eyes dimmed. 

The silence that fell was only made more profound by the sounds of the child's sobs.[][1]

   [1]: 5-8-01/slayerspilgrimage/pilgrimagefinale.html



	18. 

Pilgrimage Finale

**Pilgrimage**   
**Finale**

  
  


Lina Inverse sat silently in the drawing room of the Royal Palace of Saillune. The books that Amelia had spoken of were in her hands, and tears were falling down her cheeks as she turned the pages, seeing the words written so neatly in Amelia's hand.   
During the return trip, she had learned who Lina Wil Gracia Saillune was, and had spent a long time watching the girl curled against Zelgadis, lost in the exhausted sleep of denial when she wasn't sobbing.   
When they'd returned with Amelia, the entire country of Saillune fell into a black mourning, for Amelia had become well-loved in the years that she had been Queen.   
Indeed, the first few months, Saillune had no legal ruler, and it surprised Lina that they deemed Amelia's daughter too young to claim the throne. Lost, the girl had spent hours crying in her rooms. No mother, no father… no family, no country. She had nothing to claim but an inheritance she wasn't old enough to take. She adopted Lina Inverse, Gourry and Zelgadis as her extended family, hesitantly referring to them as her aunt and uncles. When she met with no objections, the rest of the Palace began calling them as such, adding the titles 'Lady' and 'Lord' where necessary.   
At length, Lina Inverse, Gourry and Zelgadis had discussed the future course of events, and during their meeting, a very fragile-looking Lina Wil Gracia Saillune had walked in with her head high. She had asked simple questions, but ones that held more weight than anyone had ever asked of them before.   
She asked magic training of Lina Inverse, explaining that she wanted to have the best sorceress at her side.   
Gourry Gabriev, she asked to become her bodyguard. Until such time as she could defend herself with blade or spell, it was necessary to employ someone. She would handle the payout of his mercenary contract. 

The girl turned to look at the stone-skinned man with whom she felt some semblance of kinship, even though she shared no blood kin. She took a breath, steadying herself, and then looked at Zelgadis with calm green eyes. "Lord Zelgadis Greywords, it would please My Court if you would accept the post of Regent until such time as I might ascend to the Throne."   
Silence fell, and Lina Inverse watched Zelgadis carefully. She'd suspected the depth of feelings that he'd had for Amelia, and wondered what lengths he would go to for her daughter.   
He slid out of his chair, kneeling to the underaged Queen and bowed his head. "I am honored that you ask this of me..."   
Lina Inverse held her breath.   
"And I swear to you that I will do the best of my abilities until such time as you come of age."   
The façade of royalty fell and the girl flew into him, crying. Gently, he embraced her, and she sniffled. "Oh, Uncle Zelgadis…"   
Lina Inverse sighed softly. He'd agreed to take care of the girl. And 'Aunt' Lina had little doubts that 'Uncle' Zelgadis would do just that. 

FIN 


End file.
